The port Elizabeth disturbances of october 1920

Abstract:

Suggests that trade and merchant capital, which were crucial to Port Elizabeth's economic development during the nineteenth century, was subsumed by the rise of manufactures and industrial capital after the First World War. Industrial expansion was cut short by the post-war recession, which caused un- and under-employment. The black worker, who experienced a severe loss in real earnings on account of the increased cost of living, became involved in a struggle with employers for wage increases. Shows how the policy of segregation was applied in Port Elizabeth, which meant that the workers were subjected to an increasing degree of control and regulation of their daily lives. The conditions of reproduction in the black townships fostered inter-racial and cross-class mobilisation which culminated in the formation of a general labour union, the Port Elizabeth Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (PEICWU). Chapters attempt to provide a historical perspective for analysing the underlying causes of the 1920 Port Elizabeth disturbances. The immediate cause of the disturbances was the arrest of the union leader, Masabalala, after he called for a general strike. Shows how the intervention of the local authorities provoked a spontaneous act of defiance on the part of union members. Examines the legal and political ramifications of the Port Elizabeth shootings. The circumstances of the shootings prompted the Smuts Government to appoint a commission of enquiry in the face of public pressure. The commission found that the police and vigilantes were largely to blame for the high death toll. But the government's whitewash of the findings could not absolve the police from culpability entirely, nor could it sidestep its own responsibility and liability to victims of the shootings. Attempts to assess the long term impact of the shootings on the PEICWU and the black labour movement in Port Elizabeth generally. The outcome of the episode was a victory for employers, which deals a body blow to worker organisation which only became resurgent in the 1950s.